New National Security Council Meets for First Time

Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze held the first meeting of the new National Security Council on Wednesday, the government’s press office announced.

The Council is an eight-member advisory body responsible for national security policy planning and coordination chaired by Bakhtadze. Per the Prime Minister’s decision, Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia is its Secretary.

The permanent members of the Council present at Wednesday’s session were Interior and Defense Ministers, Heads of State Security and Intelligence Services and Commander of the Defense Forces. Representatives of the President’s Office were also in attendance.

In the first meeting, Gagaria discussed the structure the advisory body would take.

The previous, president-led National Security Council was abolished after the new constitution went into effect last year. Then-president Giorgi Margvelashvili criticized the ruling Georgian Dream party for dismantling the Council, calling the move “absurd.” Without the Council, Margvelashvili said Georgia no longer has “[a] place for making political decisions about the united position of the military-political leadership.”

The next session of the new National Security Council will be held in one month’s time.